Divine Inspiration: Bring Forth Your Muse in 3 Easy Steps

Inspiration. It’s the thing we yearn for, wait for, hope for. It’s one of those things that is either there, or it’s not – or so it seems. There are myriad texts written on the topic of inspiration. How to get it, how not to lose it, where to find it. Some people seem to struggle their whole lives trying to find just the right inspiration. Others seem to just have it.

Last night I watched the documentary Imagine: John Lennon. It was brilliant. It’s a chronology of Lennon’s life in mostly his own words (and the words of his loved ones). If there ever was a person who was a model of inspiration, it was John Lennon. He lived, breathed, ate, and drank his art, not only as one of the most brilliant and prolific musicians of our time, but as a visual artist as well. It flowed out of him in what seemed to be a completely natural way, as if he was connected to some other source outside himself. There’s a place where the true artist goes when they are totally in sync with their creativity. Some believe that this place is reserved for creative geniuses like Lennon, Mozart, Warhol, and so on, that those people had access to something that us mere mortals cannot possibly fathom.

Funny thing though. Just like Lennon, Mozart and Warhol, we’re all human. That means we all have the ability to find inspiration, to create, and to go to that place where genius can happen. The difference between the “mere mortals” and people like John Lennon, is nothing more than the ability to find that place of inspiration within us. The only thing standing in the way of divine inspiration is ourselves.

I’ve been creative my whole life, but it’s only in the past 5 years or so that I’ve realized the potential of my inspiration. Getting to that point has allowed me to be a better writer, to be more creative in my work, and even to start writing music, something I never thought I’d be any good at. I’m hoping that I can share with you some ways that you too, can tap into your own creative genius.

Stop thinking so much. I believe that the number one reason we struggle with inspiration is that we spend too much time thinking about it. Take blogging, for instance. I know a lot of people who will spend weeks on a single post, outlining, making notes, refining, writing, re-writing, and even starting over. Unless you are doing a scientific study, there’s no reason to spend so much time creating a single blog post. The great thing about blogging is it allows for full creative expression and instantaneous publishing. You don’t have to wait for the book to come out or the report to be approved. You can just “do”. Personally, I rarely spend more than 30 minutes on a single post. Most of what I write comes from an idea that floats around in my head for a few days, then is essentially a stream-of-consciousness telling of the idea. I do very little editing, only editing for grammar and clarity.

The issue that most people have with getting inspiration to write (or compose music, or draw, or paint) is simply that they think about it too much. They spend so much time thinking about the subject, the colours, the process, or what other people will think, that they run around in circles with the idea. They get stuck in an endless loop of analysis, and nothing ever actually gets created. And even if it does get created, it’s usually not as good as it could have been had you just left well enough alone after the first draft.

Stop thinking so much about it. Just sit down. Start. Once it starts to flow, it will be like a faucet. Then your biggest problem will be how to shut it off. And that’s a good problem to have.

Stop searching. There’s a scene in the film where a fan shows up on Lennon’s doorstep. The fan seems to be confused and depressed. He’s trying to explain the impact John’s music is having on him. He feels as if Lennon wrote the music for him, and wants to understand how that’s possible. John could have assumed the guy was delusional, could have called the police and had the fan removed from his property. Instead, he stood on the porch and talked with the man. Then, sensing the man probably hadn’t eaten in some time, he invited him in for lunch. John Lennon lived his life through experiences…he allowed circumstances to enter and exit his life, and then took inspiration from that. That was obvious to me in the way he conducted himself. He was living every experience fully, whether it was being in front of thousands of crazed fans with the Fab Four, or working out the tune to “Imagine” on the piano, every bit of what came out in his music was a result of the experiences of his own life. It was a totally transparent process.

The biggest barrier to finding inspiration is looking too hard for it. If you’re constantly searching every nook and cranny of your existence, hoping that inspiration will just smack you in the face, you’re going about it all wrong. Inspiration cannot be sought. It must be allowed in. In other words, you have to stop yearning for inspiration and start actually experiencing things. Relax. Let go. Stop trying to control your muse. Live in the moment. Allow the words, music, colours, movements, to just flow.

Find YOUR thing. I had a friend once who was very identified with being an “artist”. One week, she was a novelist. The next week, a painter. Then, a musician. She did okay at all of these things, but it always seemed to me that she was never quite on the mark with any of them. Her real talent (and she actually had a lot of talent) never completely shone through. She was always trying to be like someone else. She saw painters she admired, and wanted her work to be in a gallery. She read really great novels, and wanted to write the next bestseller. She saw people around her making music, and wanted to write a hit song. She wanted the end result, and wasn’t focused on the process, or what it actually was that she enjoyed doing. And as a result, she wasn’t actually creating anything. She wasn’t finding HER thing.

There’s nothing wrong with being multi-faceted. In fact, that’s a really good thing. But find the creative outlets that speak to you. I thought at one time I’d love to be a novelist. I even tried writing some fiction. I realized that though I was fairly good at it, I didn’t enjoy it. I like this kind of writing much better. I’ve always been involved in music, but it wasn’t until I got an idea for a song that I actually started writing a bit. I discovered I liked that too, so I rolled with it.

Don’t try to be the next [insert name of famous poet, musician, dancer here]. Be the next YOU. Because doing the thing that speaks to you the most will let you tap into your true self. And once you are in there, the “stop thinking” and “stop searching” parts will fade away too. That’s what art, and creativity, and inspiration are all about.

Stop thinking. Stop searching. Find YOUR thing. Divine inspiration can be yours.

Susan Murphy, aka Suzemuse is a partner at Jester Creative Inc., where she helps people discover and tell their stories in a variety of mediums, including video and new media. Her interest in social media is extensive and she contributes to the community though her blog Suzemuse, on various social networks and as a teacher of Video Production and Web Media at Algonquin College.

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Image by azrainman

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